Lowell residents are taking the fight to court to stop the unchecked expansion of a data center that has grown between their homes, parks, and community spaces. Photo: Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic.
August 10, 2026 (Boston, MA) – A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has ordered Markley Group to pause part of the expansion of its massive Lowell data center, blocking the company from installing four additional diesel generators while residents’ legal challenge moves forward.
“Make no mistake, we are celebrating this ruling,” said resident group Honest Future for Lowell. “But we know this is just one step on a much longer road. And we will take every step necessary until our voices are heard, our community is respected, and our families can live healthy lives.”
Judge C. William Barrett granted residents’ request to pause the portion of Markley’s air permit covering four backup diesel generators that have not yet been installed.
“Communities shouldn’t have to race against construction while they are challenging whether a project was properly approved,” said Adam Reynolds, environmental justice fellow at Conservation Law Foundation. “Lowell residents have watched this facility grow around their homes for years while their concerns went unanswered. With this pause, the court recognized their concerns and has given the community some protection from further expansion while that fight continues.”
“The Commonwealth has declared it a cornerstone policy to integrate environmental justice considerations into permitting decisions and project reviews. This policy is intended to ensure that communities that have been historically left out of decision-making and saddled with disproportionate pollution burdens as a result are meaningfully engaged as participants in governance and protected from an accretion of polluting sources,” explained Stephanie Safdi, Clinical Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School and Director of the Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic. “We are grateful to the Court for recognizing the various ways in which the Department fell short of these promises in greenlighting Markley’s expansion of its data center in this already overburdened community and for its affirmation of the right of residents of Sacred Heart and other Environmental Justice communities to participate in shaping the future of their communities.”
The ruling comes in a lawsuit brought by Lowell residents against the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and Markley Group. Conservation Law Foundation, Yale Law School’s Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic, and Fitch Law Partners represent the residents.
Lowell residents have organized as Honest Future for Lowell, a grassroots group supported by Slingshot, which provides training, resources, and organizing support to communities most impacted by environmental pollution.
“The Markley data center’s impacts on this community have gone unaddressed for too long,” said Mireille Bejjani, co-executive director at Slingshot. “While this lawsuit is starting to address one aspect of the problem, unfortunately it won’t fix the whole situation. That’s why Honest Future for Lowell is building power among neighbors and calling on the City of Lowell to step up and protect its residents.”
The lawsuit challenges MassDEP’s approval of an air permit allowing Markley to expand its 352,000-square-foot data center in Lowell’s Sacred Heart and Back Central neighborhoods. Residents argue that the agency failed to adequately consider the community’s existing pollution burden and improperly allowed the expansion to move forward while their challenge was pending.
The broader challenge to Markley’s air permit remains pending in Middlesex Superior Court.
The full ruling can be read here.
Experts and community members are available for further comment.